Fieldstone Private Capital Group - Essay Example

? Fieldstone Private Capital Group Executive Summary I have undergone my internship program with Fieldstone Private Capital Group, which is a bankingfirm involved in offering energy and infrastructure financial advisory services to the customers. The company has presence in many parts of the world but my location of the internship was Berlin. I was appointed as an assistant revenue manager and it was for 6 weeks. The internship program has helped me to learn a number of new things, which I believe will greatly assist me in the near future. This program has not only assisted me to gain technical knowledge but along with that it has also helped in acquiring social skills. I can clearly identify the improvement in my group working skills and interaction skills. In addition, I have been able to utilize my knowledge on statistical tools. While, doing the internship program I also became aware of the operational activities of a service providing company. However, the most positive outcome of the internship program was the enhancement of my analytical skills. One of the key findings of the study was that Fieldstone is currently facing stringent competition within the financial services industry of Berlin and one of the major causes is the high price of the services. As a result of that the company has been strongly recommended to reduce the price of the service offerings and along with that initiate new programs for promoting and creating awareness of their services. Table of Contents Introduction 4 a) About Fieldstone 4 b) Location of Fieldstone 4 c) Products and Services Offered to the Customers 5 d) Competitors of the Company 5 f) Objectives and Mission of the Internship 5 Description and Analysis 6 a) Methodology 6 b) Results 8 c) Recommendations to the company 9 Learning Experience 11 a) Personal development 11 b) Challenges and Solutions 11 c) Academic Learning vs Professional Learning 12 Conclusion 12 Reference List 13 Introduction a) About Fieldstone Fieldstone is a New York based investment banking firm involved in offering energy and infrastructure financial advisory services to the customers. The company was founded in the year 1990 by some of the senior investment bankers from the Bankers Trust Company (Gatti, 2007). The company basically offers advisory services to the corporation about leveraged buyouts, private capital raises and mergers and acquisitions in infrastructure and energy industries globally. The company takes pride in being an independent employee owned venture and that allows them to offer unbiased, objective and independent ideas that are specifically designed and developed for the purpose of fulfilling the client’s long term needs (FPCG, 2013a). The company caters to a diversified client base. It ranges from small and medium sector enterprises to some of the world’s largest corporations. In addition to private sector companies, Fieldstone also offers advisory services to the government firms especially in the area of infrastructure and energy. Apart from the financial services, Fieldstone is also active in the field of CDO and high yield markets through its Fieldstone Capital Group, which is a division of Fieldstone Services Corp (Forbes, 2009). b) Location of Fieldstone Fieldstone is a company which has been able to generate a sense of trust among the consumers around the world. This is due to the company’s presence in the market for over 2 decades. During this epoch, there are hardly any negative statements came into light which was against the company or that hampered the image of the company (Keillor, 2007). Fieldstone operates in a number of places around the world. The places in which the company has presence are Berlin, Johannesburg, Hyderabad, Kuala Lumpur, London and New York (Bloomberg, 2013). The service offered by the company is almost similar in every country. However in case of South Africa, where the company operate through its Johannesburg office, offer some additional services to the customers. In the context of German market, the company is considered as an important player in the financial advisory services industry. For example, it has played the role of a financial advisor for a number of vital projects within the country. In the recent past, Fieldstone acted as exclusive debt advisor for Mainova AG in structuring, developing and facilitating the execution of the transactions (FPCG, 2010). c) Products and Services Offered to the Customers Fieldstone has always focused on infrastructure and energy industry financial services. The company has provided financial advisory services across the whole range of transaction classes from public offers for the listed companies to organizing independent power project equity financing and debt and private debt restructuring and privatizations of administration owned assets to general people. Apart from that the company is also active in the fields of project financing, capital market advisory, CSO and other structured products. Some of the services are offered in collaboration with other divisions of the company (FPCG, 2013b). d) Competitors of the Company The competitors of a company play an indispensable role in shaping up the activities of the company. Moreover, with the most number of competitors, the intensity of competition within the industry gets increased to a large extent. In the context of financial advisory services, the major players, which also acts as the competitor of Fieldstone are PNC financial services group, Wisconsin (WI) Financial Advisory Services Companies, Naldera Advisory Services and AngloINFO Berlin to name a few (Plunkett, 2006). f) Objectives and Mission of the Internship In the mid of 2013 i.e. during the month of July, I saw an advertisement from the Fieldstone in newspaper that mentions “We are looking for a talented, skilful and energetic Assistant Revenue Manager for our branch office in Berlin. The selected candidate will join as a trainee financial advisor and will undergo an internship program for 6 weeks. Candidates must have a bachelor degree and excellent knowledge of finance. Analytical and strategic skills will be an added advantage. Interested candidates are hereby requested to apply within seven days of publishing this news article.” The company also offered a full time job for the masters, but since I have been yet to achieve master degree, I was not able to apply for the full time post. The assistant revenue manager is expected to assist the supervisor or revenue manager to carry out the daily activities (Deem and Brehony, 2005). The activities will include revenue management, sales calls and other activities that aim to maximize the revenue of the company. As compensation for the efforts, Fieldstone will offer an attractive stipend and along with that a 6 week experience certificate will be also issued. This advertisement also included the physical location address as well as the e-mail address which allowed me to send my curricula Vitae (CV). Revenue management in companies involved in providing financial services basically undertakes the task of managing the revenue of the firm and looking after the ways to maximize company’s revenue. From my own point of view, the rationale behind accepting this offer was to gain work experience and get a feel of the corporate world. As an intern holding the position of assistant revenue manager in a MNC (Multi National Corporation) would be a great start to my professional career (Duff, 2000). Apart from that I also had a thought in my mind that undergoing internship program would provide me with the opportunity to get absorbed in the organization and work as a full time employee. In addition, this internship program also teaches me the actual task of an assistant revenue manager. Since, the time I joined the current course, I have continuously aimed at getting a job in the profile of a revenue manager and this internship program has provided me the opportunity. The next half of the study will present a comprehensive report related to my internship and other important facts about the company. Due to certain legal bindings, I am entitled to disclose certain information about the company, but still I have tried my level best to come up with a comprehensive report and offer sufficient information about my training experience. Description and Analysis a) Methodology After going through the advertisement, I was tremendously excited and I thought that this will be a great opportunity for me to start my professional career. I sent my CV to the e-mail address mentioned in the advertisement. Apart from the CV, I have mentioned in the mail about my willingness to join the company as an intern. I was in a great doubt about my chances of selection as the vacancy was open to all and thus the intensity of competition will be intense (Enwistle, 2001). Out of expectation, within few days of sending the mail, I received an e-mail from the HR department of Fieldstone mentioning that my profile has been shortlisted for the subsequent rounds of interview. The e-mail also mentioned about the date, time and location of the interview. I attended the interview at the mentioned date and time and was luckily selected for the post of Assistant revenue manager as an intern. During the final selection, I was given the offer joining letter and the HR mentioned me the documents that I am supposed to submit to the company. The first day of my job was exciting and interesting for me. It was basically an orientation session for me along with certain kinds of technical training. I was also introduced to the other departments of the organization. This session was extremely useful for me as it helped me to get accustomed to working environment of the company. Regarding this context, I would like to mention one thing that the formal introduction and training allowed me to grasp the company culture very early. Paradoxically, there are many companies which I have heard from my seniors that companies even do not formally introduces the new employees, rather leaves it for the employees to do it on their own. From the second day of joining, I was officially allotted the task of handling revenue operations of the firm. The first task allotted to me was to handle the calls of the customers and noting down their queries. In addition to sorting out the queries of customers through phone calls and e-mails, I was also assigned to look after the electronic distribution system. The prime aim was to maximize the distribution and earn more revenue. Moreover assisting the training manager to decide upon the training requirements was also another task. Hence, from an overall point of view I was supposed to hand three tasks at a time. Initially I was a bit confused about the job role and doubted my capabilities of whether I will be able to carry out the tasks or not. However, with the course of time, I learned about the techniques and became more proficient. One of the most complex tasks is to sort out the queries of the customers and simultaneously pitch the products to them for the purpose of selling. Although selling was not a part of my responsibility, but the manager enlightened me that if I can sell the service, I will receive certain rewards from the company. After carrying out these basic tasks for the first 15 days, I was assigned the role of analysing the viability and trend of financial service in the future. In addition, I was also supposed to analyse the services offered by the company in the previous year and propose an appropriate service type, pricing levels and any other requirements pertaining to the requirement of the company. Hence, from these facts it is evident that a significant part of my job was related to analytics. The most interesting and challenging task for me during the internship course was to analyse the sales prospect of the services offered by the company, forecasting and tracking the budget of the company by considering the business flow. Lastly, analysing the offers of the company and the schemes offered by them was also a tricky task as I mainly followed the trend which was developed by using statistical tools. On the basis of the analysis, decision making was also one of the pivotal tasks for me. The instruments or tools used by me to collect the data were focusing the group interview. One of the major reasons for using focus group survey is that it allowed me to collect in depth information about the subject of concern. b) Results Since most of my analytical task was related to future forecast, one thing is obvious that there will be certain flaws in the prediction. However, statistics has made this process much easier for the analysts or for the revenue managers of a firm. The main task of the revenue managers working in a financial services and advisory company is to manage the sales distribution channel, to handle the queries of the potential customers and oversee the revenue management system of the firm. In order to accomplish this task, one needs to have specialized skills and competencies. However, I did not face much difficulty in doing the tasks because previously I had knowledge of SAS, MS EXCEL, SPSS as well as SQL. Knowledge of these tools greatly helped me to accomplish the analytical tasks. However, along with that one also needs to have strong knowledge over the revenue management system because it requires one to perform specific and specialized tasks. Now in order to accomplish the analytical task that was assigned to me, I have conducted a detailed analysis of the historical data, the sales trends, the service offerings of the competitors, as well as the prices offered by them. The analyses also assisted in framing the budget of the firm. With the results of the analysis, I have been able to make quick decisions and accordingly recommend the changes in the company. The study revealed that the competitor's pricing was more affordable for the consumer, but for the service prices of Fieldstone is a bit high. c) Recommendations to the company Studies have shown that companies nowadays have developed their own expertise for strategic decision making purposes. However, a number of companies depend upon external consultants to make vital strategic decisions. This is because they perceive that an external consultant will be able to judge the deficiencies of the company in a much better way, while the internal employees do not have this opportunity because they do not get to view the company from a broader perspective which is only possible for an external individual. In the similar way, Fieldstone has relied on the internal people to identify the gaps and recommend the changes. On the basis of the findings, analysis and results the company has been recommended with certain recommendations. These recommendations are meant for improving the activities of the company and strengthening the position of Fieldstone in the market place. In addition, maximizing the revenue of the company is also another objective of recommendation. The company is strongly recommended to cut down the cost of service offering and simultaneously offer competitive pricing to the customers. This will greatly help the company in prevailing over the existing competition. Furthermore, the company is also recommended to convert the financial advising a dedicated service. The company is also recommended to minimize the distribution cost. This will assist in improving the product comparability, product accessibility and product transparency. Training is another aspect that should be given special attention. Hence, the company is strongly recommended to initiate several training programs that enhance then skills and competencies of the employees. According to a number of eminent scholars, training and development is imperative towards the success of a company and it enhances the competency of the company. Moreover, a number of studies have shown that training and development has been instrumental in increasing the overall productivity of the firm. Thus recommending the company to focus on training and development programs is fully justified. Learning Experience a) Personal development The internship has helped me to learn a number of new things which I believe will greatly help me in the near future. I would like to underline the fact that during the internship program I have gained theoretical knowledge as well as practical knowledge. In addition to that I have been also able to attain certain personality development skills. The most evident one is the development of interaction skills. Since, I have joined as an assistant revenue manager in Fieldstone; I needed to interact with the manager as well as other departments on a frequent basis. This has helped in improving my interaction skills to a great extent. Apart from that the training also helped me to enhance group working skills. Prior to joining this organization, I hardly had any kind of corporate exposure, but this allowed me to experience a broader picture of the corporate world. I believe the internship program has acted as a launch pad for my professional career. It also taught me several technicalities which were not known to me previously. For example, I have been able to work on new analytics software and came to know about its functions. In the similar way, I have been also able to implement the concepts in the practical field. However, one thing I should articulate that the staff members of the company were extremely supportive and have helped in every particular step. b) Challenges and Solutions Since the time when I joined the organization, till the date I have worked for the firm, I have become aware of a number of facts. The most vital discovery was the key challenges faced by the firm. On asking the manager about the challenges faced by the firm in the early days, he replied that the major setback for the company took place during the global credit crunch. The demand of advisory service almost hit all time low and as a result of that the company had to pass through a lean season. The manager also mentioned that apart from these major challenges the company deals with several other minor challenges (Kleindl, 2006). During my tenure of 6 weeks, the most obvious challenge that I have witnessed the company to deal with is the intensity of competition. The intensity of finance & investment advisory services in Berlin has reached such a stage that even the established players are experiencing tremendous difficulties. The stringent competition level has not only reduced the sales figures of the company, but at the same time the overall revenue of the company has reduced. Another challenge that becomes evident to me was the lack of awareness of the products and services offered by the company. Due to this poor awareness, the company has been losing on the overall productivity and sales (Hunt, 2009). As a solution, I have strongly recommended the executives and management authority to reduce the price levels and become more competitive (Murthy, 2005). In addition, the company is also recommended to make use of technology for the purpose of increasing the visibility of the firm. This can be done by using contemporary technologies such as internet advertisements and other forms of promotion. c) Academic Learning vs Professional Learning The training program had clearly shown the differences between the academic learning and professional learning. For example, before joining the organization I used to though that I have enough knowledge of SPSS and Excel, but while working I discovered that my idea was completely wrong as in the professional field higher version and technologies are used. Moreover, I came to know about a number of new techniques and features of the software packages. Conclusion The duration of my work in Fieldstone was from 1st August 2013 to 15th September 2013. During these 6 weeks, I have become aware of the job responsibilities of an assistant revenue manager. The training has taught me how to perform operational tasks and along with that carry out analytical tasks. Most importantly, the internship program has helped me to identify my strengths and weaknesses. Reference List Bloomberg, 2013. Company Overview of Fieldstone Private Capital Group, Inc. [online] Available at: [Accessed 21 September 2013]. Deem, R. and Brehony, K. J., 2005. Management as ideology: the case of ‘new managerialism’ in higher education. Oxford Review of Education, 31 (2), 217-35. Duff, A., 2000. Learning Styles Measurement; The Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory (RASI). Bristol Business School Teaching and Research Review, 3. Enwistle, N., 2001. Styles of learning and approaches to studying in higher education. Kybernetes, 30 (5/6), pp. 593-601. Forbes, B. C., 2009. Forbes. Forbes Incorporated, 183 (4/9), pp. 161-163. FPCG, 2010. 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